Such protective covers for motor vehicles, machinery, etc., are provided, in particular, for preventive protection of the surface, both from abrasive or chemical emissions such as dust, flash rust, bird droppings, condensate, moisture build-up and penetrating moisture, as well as from mechanical damage such as scratch and abrasion damage and damage resulting therefrom during periods of downtime, storage and transportation.
European Published Patent Application No. 1 061 008 describes a protective cover for a motor vehicle made up of a multitude of foil segments whose edges are joined to one another along predefined edge lengths, the connected edges forming differently shaped boundaries of the associated foil segments, so that the protective cover is formed such that it corresponds to a surface in space that conforms to the surface of the body of the motor vehicle. This protective cover also includes foil segments that cover mobile add-on parts of the vehicle body, which are referred to as flap segments. These flap segments are joined in a fixed manner to adjacent foil segments along at least one cutting edge, and joined in a reversible manner along at least one other cutting edge. These flap segments are used in the region of the driver-side door or the engine hood, for example. Zippers, VELCRO (hook-and-loop) fasteners or snap fastener strips are examples of reversible fasteners at the detachable cutting edges. That is to say, if one wanted to open, for instance, the engine hood of a motor vehicle covered by such a protective cover, the corresponding reversible closure extending along one cutting edge will be opened.
The flap segments used for movable add-on components such as the driver-side door, engine hood, trunk lid, etc. used in the protective cover described in European Published Patent Application No. 1 061 008 are permanently connected to the rest of the protective cover for the motor vehicle along at least one cutting edge, which means that they do not form a fully separate protective cover. In addition, to operate one of the movable add-on parts, for instance to open the driver-side door or the engine hood, the reversible closure will invariably have to be opened first in order to gain access to the engine compartment or to the passenger compartment of the vehicle. Since these reversible closures such as zippers are generally sewn to the corresponding foil segments, ripping of the seams in the region of the reversible closures occurs as a result of stressing. Moreover, repeated use often leads to jamming of the zippers, especially when portions of the protective cover get stuck in the zipper. It is also disadvantageous that dirt and water can enter when the flap segment is open.